Guidelines for Initiative Petition Circulators

  1. Circulator shall be a resident of the State of Idaho and at least 18 years of age. (34-1807 I.C.)
  2. Residence defined:
    1. “Residence,” for voting purposes, shall be the principal or primary home or place of abode of a person. Principal or primary home or place of abode is that home or place in which his habitation is fixed and to which a person, whenever he is absent, has the present intention of returning after a departure or absence therefrom, regardless of the duration of absence.
    2. In determining what is a principal or primary place of abode of a person the following circumstances relating to such person may be taken into account business pursuits, employment, income sources, residence for income or other tax pursuits, residence of parents, spouse, and children, if any, leaseholds, situs of personal and real property, situs of residence for which the exemption in section 63-602G, Idaho Code, is filed, and motor vehicle registration.
    3. A qualified elector who has left his home and gone into another state or territory or county of this state for a temporary purpose only shall not be considered to have lost his residence.
    4. A qualified elector shall not be considered to have gained a residence in any county or city of this state into which he comes for temporary purposes only, without the intention of making it his home but with the intention of leaving it when he has accomplished the purpose that brought him there.
    5. If a qualified elector moves to another state, or to any of the other territories, with the intention of making it his permanent home, he shall be considered to have lost his residence in this state. (34-107, I.C.)
  3. The signatures on any one page shall be from one (1) County only. (34-1804, I.C.)
  4. Circulator shall show and give the signer the opportunity to read both the short and long ballot title before the petition is signed. (34-1815, I.C.)
  5. Each signer must personally place on the petition his or her complete signature, residence street and number, the name of the city or post office, and the date of signing. Each signer must print his name on the petition. (34-1801A, I.C.)
  6. Circulator must sign verification on bottom of each signature page, which states that the circulator personally witnessed the signatures. (34-1807, I.C.)
  7. The law provides for severe penalties for false oaths, and knowingly and willfully circulating petitions containing false, forged or fictitious names. (Sections 34-1814 thru 34- 1818, I.C.)
  8. Communicate with the County Clerk concerning the signature verification process. The County Clerk is not required to return by mail petitions left for verification at their office. It is the proponents responsibility to gather verified petitions.

System Upgrade In Progress

Campaign Finance, Lobbyist Reporting, and Online Voter Tools are expected to be offline from April 9th at 5:00 p.m. MDT, through April 12th at 8:00 a.m. MDT to complete a system upgrade.

Per Idaho Code 67-6607, campaign finance is reported monthly during a campaign’s election year. The deadline for the March report falls on Saturday, April 10th. Due to the interruption caused by this upgrade, political treasurers will be allowed to file the March report until 11:59 p.m. MDT on Monday, April 12th.

While we do our best to ensure compliance with all deadlines in statute, the timing of this release is critical to ensure minimal (or no) impact to the May election cycle. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.